The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Takeaways: Huskies need to improve ‘everything’
And so, the non-conference portion of UConn’s schedule is complete. And where are the Huskies? 9-4.
The same record they’d have if Kevin Ollie were still the coach, as colleague Jeff Jacobs suggested? Quite possibly. Maybe 8-5. Maybe they don’t beat Syracuse, or they trip up against one of those nonconference cupcakes like Manhattan or Morehead State — something Ollie’s teams did a little too much of the past five years. So maybe even 7-6, who knows?
Whatever their record, the bottom line is this: The Huskies
have improved greatly from a year ago. They largely dominate the low-to-mid-majors. They’re usually competitive against the Power Fives (Iowa and Villanova games excluded). Heck, they’ve only been blown out twice so far. Last year at this time, they’d been blown out four times. They play hard, and they’re a generally entertaining brand.
Are there flaws? You bet. A whole lot of ’em. Dan Hurley said as much following the Villanova game, noting, “It’s everything for us — from leadership to screening.”
He’s right. Here are five takeaways from the Villanova game, as well as UConn’s first 13 games in general:
⏩ INSIDE PRESENCE: This is old news, really. We knew at the start of the season that this was a guard-oriented team, and the frontcourt was the biggest question mark. There was hope one or two of the bigs would step up. Josh Carlton scored 17 in the season-opener, and it looked like he might be an answer. But the 6foot-10 sophomore has done nothing against the high-majors, averaging 1.4 points in those five games and 11.5 against all the others. Yikes. Eric Cobb hit double figures against Syracuse, Iowa and Florida State but has mysteriously been little more of a rumor ever since, not even seeing the court against Villanova (more on that later). Mamadou Diarra hasn’t made his mid-December return from knee surgery as had been hoped, and it would appear
the start of the league season would be in doubt, too. Isaiah Whaley hasn’t played much more than Diarra.
We knew it would take a bit for Kassoum Yakwe and Sidney Wilson to shake off the rust, and both have shown promising signs in recent games. Hurley clearly likes the two St. John’s transfers, and they should both continue to improve. But they have limitations, as well. Yakwe is the longarmed, shot-swatting presence the team has so coveted, but he’s extremely limited offensively. Wilson is the dynamic athlete the team needs, but he’s a bit undisciplined, and at 6-7, 177, doesn’t figure to be a big rebounding force.
⏩ TIED COBB?: It would seem Cobb could answer some of those problems.
He’s the team’s most polished offensive big, by far, and he can rebound (13 against Syracuse, 10 vs. Arizona). He is a liability on defense, and that’s a big no-no on a Hurley-coached team. But is he so bad defensively that his doubledouble potential (see: Syracuse game) is completely overlooked? Sure, the defensive presence of Yakwe and Wilson (despite a combined three goaltending calls) was a key to playing even with ’Nova for the first 23 minutes Saturday. But as the Wildcats gradually pulled away with a 19-0 run in the second half, wouldn’t it make sense to mix things up a bit and see if Cobb could do a few things inside? He didn’t play a single second on Saturday. Temi Aiyegbusi did.
Deciphering Hurley’s explanation is difficult. He said “you’ve got to put tons of value in the way guys show up every day and how hard they’re getting after
it,” suggesting Cobb isn’t working hard. But then he added, “That’s not to say Eric isn’t.”
Yakwe may be working hard and is vastly superior on defense. But nine minutes in the last three games and none against Villanova for Cobb just seems ... odd. (And the media misses his postgame handshakes, too. Just kidding).
⏩ KEEP ON RUNNING? About a month ago, Hurley suggested that if the Huskies didn’t stop turning the ball over so often, he’d have to take the air out and go to a slower, halfcourt, grind-itout style. Well, the turnovers haven’t stopped — 92 in the past six games, including 18.3 per game against Arizona, Florida State and Villanova. But few believed Hurley at the time, and, indeed, he said on Saturday that the team will continue to play an uptempo style.
“We really have a great stable of guards. The best way for us to go is to push the pace, get the ball down the court quickly and attack, with a bunch of skilled guards, without exactly a stable of bigs to throw it in to. I think, obviously, I have to have a much shorter leash with these guys coming back from the holidays. A shorter leash, in terms of being responsible with the ball during the course of the game. You’re gonna have to come out when you don’t value it the way you should. But we’ll be committed to the pace we play at. I just have to hold these guys more accountable. When you do turn the ball over, get them right out of there so that they understand.”
⏩ AILIN’ JALEN: We don’t want to keep piling on Jalen Adams, and it seems maybe Hurley feels the same way. He was generally complimentary of Adams on Saturday, even after the senior guard went 3-for-13 and turned the ball over six times.
“It just didn’t go down for him today,” Hurley shrugged.
But the coach can’t be happy that his best player hasn’t really stepped up lately. The dichotomy couldn’t have been greater on Saturday, when ’Nova’s two veteran leaders, Phil Booth and Eric Paschall, came up huge, while Adams laid an egg. If nothing else, as evidence by Hurley’s prior comments, Adams may get a quicker hook from games moving forward. Ultimately, it’s real simple: Jalen Adams needs to play better, or UConn is going nowhere this season.
⏩ AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM? A lot has been made lately of how the American Athletic Conference is better than expected this season, but we’re not quite on board with that yet. Houston is a Top 25 team, Cincinnati is knocking on the door and UCF looks pretty good, but those were the only three teams in the Top 50 of the NET rankings entering Saturday’s action Houston No. 7, Cincy No. 24 and UCF No. 50). The NET rankings are replacing the RPI as a key metric the NCAA Selection Committee uses to determing its at-large bids. It’s hard to see AAC teams being able to make a whole lot of advancement during the league season, though it’s certainly possible. It’s hard to see the league getting more than three bids this season, and it’s not out of the realm that it only gets two. UConn (whose NET ranking was No. 81 entering Saturday) may have to win the league tournament in Memphis to get to the Big Dance.